Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-07-20
MR.. AND MRS. BOWSER.

After supper the other evening Mr.. Bow
ser pulled lot of statements of accounts
from his pocket with great gravity of de-
meanor and spreading them out upon the
centre table, he said
"Mrs. Bowser, do you see these?"
81 do"
'Do you know what they are ?"
"Why, they are the monthly accounts
from the grocer's."
"Oh, they are Well, should say so
Do you know what this family has devour-
ed, wasted and given to the Polacks in the
last month ?"
81 know that we have been very econom-
ical."
"Doyou The grand footing is $64, Mrs
Bowser--over $15 per week for family of
four, and one Of them baby and the other
hired girl with Ithe dyspepsia !! l am no
miser, but pronounce this an outrage"
"But / haven't ordered anything extra,
and I've tried to be very careful and buy
close"
''Mrs. Bowser, it's your poor buying and
poor management. You don't know any
more about running house than I do oil
bossing steamboat. Either that or else
grocers are swindling me, and won't stand
| it. Hereafter l shall do all the buying"
l gave the cook orders to tell him what
| she wanted, and next morning Mr.. Bowsel
entered upon his new duties. The first pur.
chase he made was a bushel of potatoes
| from peddler in front of the house. He
gave 1.10 and told the man where to carry
them. When he came home to dinner the
cook had to tell him {:
81 put that bushel of potatoes into three
pecks, and then cut up the whole lot to get
coed onos enough for dinner"
The first thing that came up from the gro
Gerry was a consignment of ten cans Of
pumpkins. This was followed by fifty
pounds of evaporated apples and 100 dozen
clothes pins. AS nothing further appeared
the cook boiled some potatoes, made q
pumpkin pie and stewed some of the apples.
When he went down to dinner Mr.. Bowsel
looked around in astonishment.
"What does this mean ?" he finally de-
manded.
"Why, it's all you sent.''
He couldn't gainsay that, and by and by
he explained that he had saved fully dol
lar and half on his purchases by buying
| in such quantities.
"You paid ten cents per can for pump
kin, while l got the lot for seven," he
went on. "Thirty cents isn't SO very
much, but it is as good to me as to the gro
cer."
ssYes, but 1 bought about one can a
month. You have enough here to last us
| three years"
"Well, I saved forty cents on the ap-
ples?'' he protested.
"We have used just two pounds in the
last six months, Mr.. Bowser. At that rate
you haYe laid in supply for two years" "
There was look of terror in his eyes,
20 ola fHnc
nor say word about the potatoes.
went down with him next morning,
and as we halted in front of the grocery he
called out:
"Say, Green, a roast for dinner-two
quarts of Strawberries es-and-yum-say a
head of cabbage
When we had driven away he said to
me:
"We were just eleven seconds in front OF
that grocery. You'd come down here and
fool away half an hour to give the same
order. You've got to be right up and
down to business with these felows.''
When we came to sit down to dinner we
had roast pork and strawberries and boiled
cabbage.
81 want to know what this meansp' ex-
claimed Mr.. Bowser, as he showed back.
"This is what you ordered, dear, and il
didn't take but eleven seconds. You
didn't specify the sort of roast you wanted
and you didn't tell the cook whether yor
wanted the cabbage boiled, fried or baked
You are running the kitchen now yor
know"
He swallowed a few mouthfuls, triei
hard to change the subject, and after din
ner he went into the kitchen and said Il
the girl.